Friday, February 4, 2011

Moon - Movie Review

Moon will possess just enough of your interest to keep you until the end. The whole plot can be summed up quickly [SPOILERS]: A corporation named Lunar, in order to reduce labor costs, clones an employee to run their moon base. Here’s the twist: the clone (the main character) doesn’t know he’s a clone. But when he finds out there is no big meltdown or rage at the morals of corporations or Science or anything. The clones accept it. The go back to work. Really rational and mature of them. I don’t want hysterics but I was a little curious about the how and why of the cloning and just wished the clones were too. Skipping the how and why of plot, the final score is one clone dies (three year life span), one stays on base to run it, and one goes to Earth where the film ends implying some controversy with clones on Earth. That might be interesting. [END SPOILERS]

What keeps the interest are the obvious homages to the great science fiction films of the 70’s and 80’s. The director cites 2001 and Alien among othersin a QA feature on the disk. You know the elements, the robotic helper that is programmed to “save” the crew, the seemingly quiet base located nowhere near anything, the lack of talking, the clear signs of over-stress. Moon just creates these homages empty, not filling in a story.

Moons central science fiction elements are the clones and cloning in the service of lower labor costs. Sterile. But more offensive is that the film doesn’t explore the science or effects of cloning, only gives a surface examination of the psychological effects, and none of the social or political ramifications. That’s why I watch science fiction. Ask an intriguing “what if?” question, then honestly see where it goes. Moon doesn’t even offer a close character study. The clones get over the confusion of there being clones pretty easily, and only refuse to let go of a desire to see the family they know isn’t theirs. Which, what, reinforces the power of love and need for connection? That’d be worse than the nothing. The film does and says nothing.